(Photo illustration: Nevodka/iStock/Getty Images)

Italy moves to ban lab-grown food in drive to protect tradition

Ag lobby praises government move; angry reactions from food companies, animal rights groups

Reading Time: 2 minutes Rome | Reuters –– Italy’s government on Tuesday approved a bill banning the use of laboratory-produced food and animal feed as it aims to safeguard the country’s agri-food heritage, its agriculture minister told a news conference after a cabinet meeting. If the proposal is passed by parliament, Italian industry will not be allowed to produce […] Read more


External view of the U.S. Department of Labor headquarters in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 30, 2020. (File photo: Reuters/Andrew Kelly)

U.S. to crack down on child labour amid massive uptick

Food processing plants among alleged offenders

Reading Time: 3 minutes Washington | Reuters — The Biden administration in the U.S. announced measures to crack down on child labour on Monday amid a steep rise in violations and investigative reports by Reuters and other news outlets on illegal employment of migrant minors in dangerous industries. U.S. officials said the Labor Department had seen a nearly 70 […] Read more

A plot of sweet white lupin at the Harrington research farm, just outside of Charlottetown, P.E.I.

Finding the sweet spot for lupin

The pulse crop has agronomic merits but more production depends on increased product development and marketing

Reading Time: 4 minutes No, it’s not the wild lupin, the blue-flowered plant that’s a common sight in roadside ditches, particularly in the Maritimes — it’s inedible to livestock and humans. Rather, it’s the sweet white lupin and the blue lupin, and they have impressive credentials — high protein (35 to 38 per cent), 30 per cent dietary fibre, […] Read more


Circular food systems establish collaborative networks to keep nutrients cycling through the system, thus reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill.

Developing a circular food economy

One out of six families near Guelph, Ontario, are food insecure. So why do we throw out over a third of the food that farmers produce?

Reading Time: 4 minutes Farmers are the original recyclers. Now a circular food economy project in Guelph is helping farmers and businesses collaborate to find even more ways to reduce waste. The goal of Our Food Future is to build a circular economy within the regional food supply chain, says Justine Dainard, project manager for the County of Wellington. […] Read more

File photo of greenhouse food production systems in British Columbia. (KarenMassier/iStock/Getty Images)

B.C. to back Indigenous food system projects

New program taking applications starting Monday

Reading Time: 2 minutes A new British Columbia program will provide up to $80,000 each for projects in agriculture, food processing or other sectors to improve food security in that province’s Indigenous communities. The province on Wednesday rolled out a new Indigenous Food Systems and Agriculture Partnership Program, which is set up to take applications starting Monday (Sept. 26) […] Read more


File photo of the Agropur logo on its former fluid milk plant in Winnipeg. (Dave Bedard photo)

Agropur backs major upgrades for Nova Scotia ice cream plant

Dairy co-op puts up $34M to 'redefine space' at Truro

Reading Time: 2 minutes Major dairy co-operative Agropur is putting up eight figures to upgrade an ice cream and frozen novelties plant it owns in Nova Scotia to handle new premium product lines. The co-operative said June 17 it will invest $34 million in the former Scotsburn plant at Truro, to “redefine the space within the plant (and) support […] Read more

Workers in the JBS beef plant at Brooks, Alta. appear in a screen shot from a 2018 corporate video. (JBS Canada video screengrab via YouTube)

Changes to TFW program to expand worker availability

Workplace LMIAs now valid for 18 months

Reading Time: 3 minutes The federal government is boosting the availability of temporary foreign workers (TFWs) to ag and other understaffed sectors under a list of policy changes announced Monday. Employment and Workforce Development Minister Carla Qualtrough announced what’s called the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program Workforce Solutions Road Map, which the government said “marks the next step in […] Read more


“This is putting growing pressure on companies in Canada to leave and take their jobs with them,” says FHCP’s Michael Graydon.

Home field advantage

Of course exports are vital, but look how much our farms earn from domestic processors

Reading Time: 5 minutes Canada’s food and beverage industry, defined as all the activities involved in taking raw agricultural output and processing it into finished products for consumers, employs 290,000 people and provides about 70 per cent of all processed food and beverage products sold in Canada. The sector is Canada’s second-strongest manufacturing industry with economic activity of $117.8 […] Read more

“The more we can partner with our friends up the value chain, the better it will be for the farmers.” – Keith Currie, Canadian Federation of Agriculture.

On the same team

Is it too much to hope that farmers and processors will get better at working together?

Reading Time: 4 minutes Since food and beverage processors are the largest buyers of agricultural production in Canada, purchasing about 40 per cent of domestic farmers’ agricultural output, growth in domestic processing couldn’t help but be positive for farmers. At least, that’s the growing consensus in more university business faculties and in the head offices of more business associations. […] Read more